Despite a drop in its agriculture exports in 2023 to $51 billion from $55 billion in 2022, India maintained its position as world’s eighth largest exporter of agriculture products in the year as seven of the top ten exporting nations witnessed a decline, per figures collated by the WTO.
“Among the leading exporters of agricultural products, Brazil, the European Union and Thailand increased their exports by 6 per cent, 5 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively in 2023. The other seven economies in the top 10 saw a decrease in their exports of agricultural products. Collectively, the top ten exporters represented a 71.9 per cent share in world exports in 2023,” noted a report on key insights and trends related to WTO Trade Statistics 2023.
The fall in agriculture exports in India can be attributed to geopolitical factors such as the Red Sea crisis and the continuing Russia-Ukraine war but the decline was largely across regulated commodities such as rice, wheat, sugar, and onions, officials in India had earlier pointed out.
India had imposed a ban on export of wheat in May 2022, non-basmati rice in July 2023 and on sugar from October 2023.
The EU maintained its top position in 2023 by exporting agriculture produce valued at $836 billion compared to $799 billion in 2022. The US, too, continued at the second spot despite a drop in agriculture exports in 2023 to $198 billion as opposed to $222 billion in the previous year.
Brazil’s agriculture exports increased to $157 billion in 2023 from $148 billion in 2022 while it retained the third spot.
China was the fourth largest agriculture exporter in 2023 with shipments valued at $95 billion which was marginally below exports worth $96 billion in 2022.
Other countries among top ten agriculture exporters include Canada, Mexico, Indonesia and Australia.
The WTO’s World Trade Statistics 2023 has a new interactive tool presenting key data and trends for international merchandise and commercial services trade in 2023. “The digital platform allows users to view the latest trends in world trade, in terms of both value and volume, using filters to display the data by economy, region, selected grouping, product group and services sector,” a WTO note pointed out.